Four top film industry global piracy experts spoke at USC Law Nov. 14 about the lengths taken to protect studios’ intellectual property as thieves become increasingly efficient.
Vicki Solmon, senior vice president for corporate piracy at Sony Pictures Entertainment, David Kaplan and Lucia Rangel, vice presidents for corporate piracy at Warner Bros.; and John Malcolm, executive vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), agreed the landscape of film piracy is changing with the development of newer, smaller technologies.
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| Film industry piracy experts David Kaplan, Lucia Rangel, Vicki Solmon and John Malcolm |
In 2005, piracy cost the motion picture industry worldwide $18.2 billion, according to a study commission by the MPAA, Malcolm said. That includes $5.5 million in lost wages and more than 141,000 lost jobs.
“No industry can take an $18.2 billion hit without feeling it in a very hard and tangible way,” Malcolm said.
Most movie piracy – 90 percent, Malcolm estimated – stems from recording a movie from inside a theater, often done at a preview screening, and selling illegally copied DVDs. Occasionally, someone will steal a copy of the movie before its release and post it on the Internet.
Rangel, a Warner Bros. vice president, heads the fight against piracy in Latin America. Fewer people in Latin American countries have access to the Internet, she said, but pirated DVDs are readily found on the streets.
“If a movie is released in the U.S. on a Friday, it’s on the streets in Mexico on Sunday, with subtitles,” Rangel said.
Sony’s Solmon led a 200-person task force that met every two weeks for six months to protect the new James Bond movie, “Casino Royale,” before it is seen worldwide on Nov. 17. Each script was secretly watermarked so it could be tracked back to its rightful owner if “misplaced,” Solmon said. Because the Broccoli family – which produces and has creative control over the Bond movies – lives in England, portions of the movie had to repeatedly be sent overseas, but never a complete version. The movie contains eight reels, and no two sequential reels were ever sent, Solmon said.
Also, the studio only held pre-screenings where required by law, and avoided movie theaters that have been susceptible in the past.
“Every single screening, we had complete security,” Solmon said. “We searched people before they went in, we had night scopes that detect ‘camcording,’ … we have been protecting this movie in every single way.”
Stopping piracy requires targeting criminal syndicates that fund thieves and take in the profits, Malcolm said. The industry also must push prosecutors, judges and legislators to help fight movie piracy, he said.
“When you imperil intellectual property in the country, you are going to hurt the U.S. economy in a big way,” he said.
The panel was hosted by the USC Law International Relations Organization.
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